


look ahead (just please don't look away)

by laheysmythes



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Bickering, Jealousy, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27683399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laheysmythes/pseuds/laheysmythes
Summary: “Wait a minute. Are you jealous?” Theo smirked just like that time he found Liam about to kill Gabe in the bathroom at the high school.“A-are you?” Liam asks again, hesitating a bit as if he was afraid of the answer.In which Hayden texts Liam and both Theo and Liam get jealous for the wrong reasons.
Relationships: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken
Comments: 4
Kudos: 177





	look ahead (just please don't look away)

**Author's Note:**

> Feels good to be back. I was looking at tumblr inbox and some prompts I had from 3 years ago and some anon had asked for thiam + "Wait a minute. Are you jealous?" so this happened. Hope y'all like it!

“Stop stealing my fries,” Theo moved said fries out of Liam’s reach so he wouldn’t grab any more. “If you wanted more you should’ve ordered more.”

Liam rolled his eyes and adjusted the recliner on the passenger seat far back so he was lying down now, phone in hand mindlessly scrolling through social media. Boring thing about stakeouts is you had to spend _hours_ waiting for something interesting to happen, but sadly that was his duty now. It was his duty once he had agreed to look after Beacon Hills once Scott left, and he made it Theo’s duty as well once he named him unofficially his second in command.

If Theo didn’t want his fries stolen he shouldn’t have agreed to come with him. And yet, here he is.

Liam kept scrolling through memes and dumb posts until his phone rang with a text notification and as soon as he saw the contact name of who was texting him he dropped his phone, gracelessly, then moved the recliner abruptly so he was almost sandwiched inbetween the seat.

Theo snorted at Liam’s lack of skills to do anything subtly, and continued eating his fries. Liam struggles but manages to adjust the recliner into a seating position now, then picks up his phone from where he dropped it. He stares at the screen pensively for several minutes and that catches Theo’s attention.

“Why did you drop your phone like it was a hot potato, what was it?” Theo glanced at him briefly before returning to eat the last of his fries in one go.

“It’s Hayden,” Liam answers.

Theo freezes in place for a second, he tries to remain expressionless for the most part but his jaw tightens. He continues chewing the last of his fries slowly.

“What does she want?” Theo says, a bit colder than he would’ve liked.

“She says she’s coming to visit Beacon Hills for a few days but she needs some intel on the hunters we were after last week, something about them attempting to attack her pack months ago,” Liam bit his lip nervously.

“You can text her the intel right?” Theo asks.

“She says she wants to meet in person.”

“Right.”

“Something about being more secure to deliver the intel in person,” Liam sweats, in a way he feels like he’s being interrogated.

“Sure.” Theo says bitterly, but Liam barely notices since that’s how Theo regularly talks in general. “Are you gonna go?”

“I don’t know. Should I?” Liam asks honestly and turns to look at Theo as if for guidance or to beg him to put him out of his misery right there and then.

“Do you _want_ to go?” Theo asks back in return. Helpful.

“I don’t know.” _No,_ the answer is no, but Liam’s brain isn’t functioning right now.

“What do you mean you don’t know-”  
  
“I don’t know! I mean she’s just here for the intel, right?” Liam _pleaded_ at Theo to reassure him that all she was here for was just the stupid intel and nothing else, as if Theo knew all the answers.

“Right.”

Liam huffs and looks at the text once again. He ponders his options, which… he doesn’t have any. Either he goes or he goes. 

“I’m sure it will be fine. She’s just here for the intel right, anyone can deliver it to her,” Liam voiced his thoughts out loud for once, but he would soon later regret this decision.

“If anyone can deliver her the intel then I’ll do it,” Theo offered.

It had been a while since Liam had experienced that familiar rush of blood coursing through his entire body to settle on his face and head until his ears were burning, head pounding, hands slightly shaking. Liam turned his head to look at Theo so fast his neck hurt.

“You?!” Liam _whined_ , unfortunately for him when he got angry he had never had any grace whatsoever.

“Yes. _Me._ You said anyone can deliver it, I’m anyone,” Theo said calmly.

Liam suddenly got reminded of a specific memory. High school, hallway, near the lockers. He remembers angrily glaring daggers across the hall at Theo, who seemed to be the center of Hayden’s attention. She was happily talking to Theo like it was normal, like they were _close_ , and Theo was staring right back at Liam, like he was _enjoying_ every single moment of the situation.

Liam’s heart rate starts going through the roof, his anger steadily growing more and more. He wasn’t about to wolf out, but his anger has always gotten the best of him.

Theo picks up on Liam’s fast heartbeats, and looks at him. He can visibly see that Liam is angry right now, you didn’t even need to be a werewolf to see that, you just had to have a pair of eyes and some common sense. _Probably because he wants to see Hayden,_ Theo assumed and rolled his eyes.

After some moments of trying (and pathetically failing) to regain his composure, Liam spat out “I guess you could go… if you want to.”

Suddenly the ball was in Theo’s park.

“Right.” 

Liam’s heart rate increased even more, he was half expecting Theo to back down but he didn’t. Suddenly the memory of the hallway got replaced with a new visual: Theo, looking a bit older than in the previous memory, his long hair styled back messily like he wears it right now, wearing clothes in dark tones just like his entire wardrobe post-hell is now, and a girl with wavy hair, Hayden, who looks exactly the same as in Liam’s previous memory. Hayden is talking, smiling even at Theo, just like she was in the previous memory, but this time the distance between them is closer, and Theo-

Theo is no longer looking at Liam anymore.

“But why?” Liam flat out asks, not stopping to think.

“What do you mean why?” Theo spats back.  
  
“Why do you _want_ to?”

“Want _what?_ ”

“You know… to go meet Hayden and deliver the intel,” Liam slightly regretted asking that.

“I mean you said it yourself, somebody has to right? And you said it could be anyone so might as well be me,” Theo said defensively.

“But- but she’s never gonna trust anything that comes out of your mouth!”

“That’s not my problem.”

Theo always had a way to end conversations with the final tone in his voice but Liam refused to let him win easily this time.

“It IS your problem, it’s _our_ problem,” Liam emphasized the words hoping Theo will understand and give him some mercy.

“So what you’re saying is _you_ want to be the one delivering the intel?” Theo looked at him and Liam could feel the coldness of his stare settle in his bones.

“I mean, it’s the only logical choice,” Liam is mentally grasping at straws trying to find a good excuse that doesn’t blurt out _‘I’m picturing you looking at my ex like you did to me and I’m not liking it!’_

Theo just gets noticeably mad now, but unlike Liam, his way of dealing with it is by slight passive aggressiveness. 

“Okay, you can go then.”

Liam felt like Theo had just spat in his face.

“Why are you mad?” Liam has to ask, he’d rather get into a fight with Theo right there and then or at least get him to admit that he’s mad because he won’t get to see Hayden, so he can confirm what his thoughts are telling him.

“I’m not mad.”

But getting information out of Theo is like hitting a stone and expecting blood to come out of it, it’s impossible. But Liam is more stubborn than anyone else.

“Then why-”

Theo cut Liam off before he could finish talking. 

“All I’m saying is, if you want to go see your **ex** -girlfriend and talk you can go ahead, I’m sure it’s _nothing_ right?” 

“And what’s it to YOU why do you wanna go see her so bad you’re practically begging to go deliver her the intel, when every time we have to do something I literally have to drag you out to do it? You never take initiative first,” Liam ranted while Theo just rolled his eyes mockingly, taking a large sip of his soda, slurping a little bit too loud to drown out the noise of Liam talking.

Liam notices and gets pissed, grabbing the soda away from Theo’s hands so fast he almost dropped it.

“Hey asshole! I’m talking!” Liam yells at Theo. “Why do you wanna see Hayden so bad, do you still have a crush on her? Is that it?”

Theo narrowed his eyes in disgust, several question marks written on his expression.

“Do you think that if you go and meet her you can just flash a smirk and say,” Liam changed his tone into what was a very poorly done mocking impression of Theo. “ _‘Oh hey babe, I’m not evil anymore, I heard you’re single now, do you wanna go out?’_ and then she will just- just agree and suddenly you’re gonna kiss and then you’re gonna be driving her around in your truck because her loser ex didn’t even know how to drive, _‘Hey everyone! Look at me, I’m Theo and I own a truck!’_ and then suddenly time passes and you’re just gonna fuck off of Beacon Hills and go live with her to wherever the fuck she left!”

Liam got increasingly more agitated as he spoke, when he finished he had to breathe several times just to replenish the air he was missing. While he got his breathing in check again, Theo just stared at him.

“Are you done? Can I have my soda back?” is all Theo replied to him.

“Yes I’m done,” Liam mumbles and shoves Theo’s drink in his hands, the ice inside the cup shaking against the plastic, the only sound heard in the tense atmosphere inside the truck.

Theo takes a moment to consider what Liam had just said and he realizes something. His anger dissipates a little bit, instead settling on teasing Liam.

“And what if I was? Would that be so bad?”

Any person with a brain who valued their life would have not said that in front of Liam, considering how the situation was so tense a pin could drop and cause an explosion. But Theo was not just any person.

Liam looks at him just like Theo expected him to, with a piercing look that if his eyes were daggers he would have been stabbed a thousand times already, shot and thrown off a cliff for safety measure.

“What did you say?” Liam managed to not choke in his anger.

“Wait a minute. Are you jealous?” Theo smirked just like that time he found Liam about to kill Gabe in the bathroom at the high school.

Liam immediately sobers up but his face stays red, not out of anger anymore but out of embarrassment.

“I- you- I- _ARE YOU?_ ” he yells.

Theo didn’t expect Liam to turn the cards on him so his smirk falls flat, stopping for once to consider _why_ he was so angry at Liam meeting up with Hayden again. The silence goes long enough for Liam to get his brain working again and notice it, since Theo would’ve mocked him endlessly by now.

“A-are you?” Liam asks again, hesitating a bit as if he was afraid of the answer. Sadly his brain doesn’t stay too long online because the next thing he does is gasp and blurts out: “Are you jealous of ME stealing Hayden back?!”

“Hayden? I don’t give a shit about Hayden Liam, I was doing you a favor,” Theo quickly answers, his tone defensive.

Liam begins thinking, again.

“Can’t say the same for you though, you almost jumped at my throat at the mere thought of me going anywhere near her, _clearly_ you have some unsolved issues with her.”

“Me? I don’t give a shit about her ei-” Liam shuts up abruptly, realizing what his words meant.

Liam suddenly realizes that all this time he was jealous, very, _very_ jealous, and his anger was not because of Theo stealing Hayden away from him, but the other way around. It took Liam a while to get over her and her leaving him behind without a warning, but he had gotten over her, and the mere thought of being with her, _now,_ just wasn’t something he wanted anymore. But the thought of Theo _and_ Hayden together had made him jealous, so if it isn’t Hayden-

“Oh,” Liam blurts out loud as his brain cells fail him once again to stop him from talking out loud. He rapidly looks away from Theo, looks _anywhere_ but at him. _Oh._

Theo waits a minute before looking back at Liam and asks: “What?”

“It’s nothing.”

“The hell it isn’t, you clearly are very jealous and very angry right now so let’s have at it Liam,” Theo challenges him to speak, as he always had.

Liam simply wishes a hole opened up right there and then so he could fall and croak in peace for good.

“It’s NOTHING. You can forget about it, go give the intel to Hayden.”

“Now I won’t do it, you can do it yourself. Otherwise I’m going to _steal your girlfriend away-”_ Theo was walking a very thin, dangerous line but what Liam said next surprised him.

“EX-girlfriend, Theo. Ex-girlfriend.”

“Clearly.” Theo continued to add fuel to the fire with one single word.

“Oh my GOD IT WAS NEVER ABOUT HAYDEN, IT WAS _NEVER_ ABOUT FUCKING HAYDEN, OKAY?!” Liam yelled but Theo didn’t even flinch once.

Theo takes a pause to process what Liam just said, but even though his brain is telling him that the only logical explanation there is since there are only two people in that scenario, himself and Hayden, and it’s not about Hayden, then it has to be about him, but it _can’t be,_ right? 

Right?

“Liam… are you jealous _of_ Hayden?” Theo asks, saying every word carefully.

Liam just closes his eyes in defeat.

“Why?” 

“BECAUSE, it’s just-” Liam pauses once again, trying to compose himself. Theo stares at Liam the entire time.

“Look, Hayden left me, she left, and you and me we… we have a good thing going on, you know, running the pack, stakeout missions, driving around Beacon Hills, and back then when you were trying to steal the pack, I… she _trusted_ you, and when I saw you and her together I could _see_ the way she was comfortable around you despite everything, so now that you’re not evil anymore, I guess… is it so crazy to think that she would be interested in you, and I don’t know, you suddenly get interested in her as well and then next thing you know you’re leaving.”

Theo takes in everything that Liam said, processing what it meant and the implications of it. He stares at Liam just like he did that day at the elevator, with a look that said a thousand words but none at the same time, where Theo felt like he had unlocked some new side of Liam, just a tiny bit, like he was one step closer to _understanding_ but also raised a million other questions as well, questions which Theo willingly wants to stick around to find the answers for.

“For your information, it was never Hayden who I was interested in back then.” 

Liam stares at Theo.

“Certainly not _now._ ”

Theo considers his next words: he doesn’t want to spook Liam by saying _‘My interest was always in you, back then, now, tomorrow.’_ What he said was as close to the truth as he could get for now. But the words _‘You and me we have a good thing going on’_ and _‘Next thing you know you’re leaving’_ kept ringing in his head. Theo might not be able to be completely honest right now but he had to let Liam know that of course he’s not going to leave the first real home he’s ever had.

“And I’m not going anywhere,” he started saying, choosing his words carefully. “You brought me back from hell now you’re stuck with me.”

Liam chuckles, a bit more relaxed now. 

“Sounds fine by me.”

A couple minutes later Liam receives yet another text:

 **Hayden:** nvm i’m going to meet with corey tomorrow, just give him the info so he can give it to me

Liam stares at it and sends back a thumbs up, closing the conversation for good.

“That Hayden again?” Theo asks again, looking outside the window at the house they were staking out.

“Yeah. Turns out she didn’t wanna see me, or you I’m guessing.”

“Sounds fine by me.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr: @laheyjackson, thanks for reading!


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